Obama stumps in NE Philadelphia before whistlestop daytrip in Pennsylvania.

In Philadelphia, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) stumped for blue collar votes on Saturday morning before heading to the 30th Street Station to board an Amtrak special for a whistlestop day trip in northeast Pennsylvania. His first train stop was on the Main Line, a stretch of monied suburbs. Voter registration in these suburban areas--as in all of the state-- has skyrocketed in advance of the Tuesday primary.

Senator Obama worked both sides of Revere and 28th Street in the Mayfair district of North East Philadelphia. It last about 40 minutes. He also clipped the corner of Knorrs St. Residents described their neighbourhood, which had a close-knit community atmosphere, as “working class”. A lot of the residents were sitting on their doorsteps or on their lawns enjoying the Saturday morning sunshine.

Adults were outnumbered by kids. But the kids were outnumbered by the media. Senator Obama was accompanied by Congressman Patrick Murphy and Kim Milnarski, a local Obama volunteer. About a third of the doors that they knocked on elicited no answer or else there was no-one home. “This reminds me of my days campaigning to be a state Senator,” Obama told Rep Murphy. “Only there was no media and there were more slammed doors.”

Most people greeted Mr Obama warmly, although some remained seated on their doorsteps as he shook their hands. Only a few had questions for Mr Obama. “Not really,” said one retired 73-year-old, when Senator Obama asked if he wanted to ask anything. “Well you take care of yourself,” said the Senator and handed him some campaign literature.

The Senator posed for about twenty pictures, many of them with children. Some of the snaps were suggested by Congressman Murphy, who offered to take the pictures himself. “He’s not an expert,” said Obama of Murphy’s photographic skills. “Now they have to vote for me so they will have a picture with the president,” Obama quipped another time.

Senator Obama conducted two extended chats with residents. The first was with Don Robertson, whose family lived at 6756 Knorrs Street. “Why are you wearing a Boise State Football shirt?” asked the Senator. Mr Robertson’s answer was not audible.

“I hope you can to something about home foreclosures,” said Mr Robertson. He described how his monthly payments had risen by $600 to $700 a month on a property he owned in Florida and that he had recently been laid off and had difficulty keeping up with the payments.

Sen Obama asked him a few questions about his mortgage and then described details of the House bill (presumably Barney Frank’s) that would assist people like him. “We just passed something in the Senate but they started loading it up with tax breaks for property developers,” said Sen Obama. “This is what we’re up against.”

At the next house on Revere St, Mr Obama described his middle class tax cut proposals to a father with three kids (no time to get their names). Healthcare came up and Obama said to Murphy (aged 34): “We’ve been talking about this [universal insurance] for 45 years. You weren’t even born yet.”

The next house, 2808 Revere, had some good news for Sen Obama. A middle-aged woman called Teresa, who described herself as a “homemaker – a domestic goddess” said that with the help of Congressman Murphy she had persuaded her father-in-law to switch his support from Sen Clinton to Sen Obama and he had written to a local paper to announce his decision. “Is he here?” asked Sen Obama. No, she said. “He will be so disappointed to hear that he’s missed you.” Her kids were at baseball practice.

Other encounters included Obama signing a school project montage that was covered with pictures of the Senator and which the kids were holding up on their front lawn. He signed the montage and scrawled his signature on one of the kid’s shirts. The shirt being white, Obama asked a little nervously if the kid’s mother was around: “Tell your mother if she needs for me to reimburse…”

At another point, he knocked on the door of a house that had a Hillary supporter sign in its window. The resident, a truck driver, was polite and took a picture of his teenage daughter with her arm around Obama. He didn't have any questions.

Edward Luce,
Washington Bureau Chief, Financial Times.

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4 Comments

Lynn--is Angellight on the train? If she is, ask her about her professed friend Greg Mitchell--did Keith Olbermann tell Greg (when Mitchell was on MSNBC's Countdown pushing his EXCELLENT book So Wrong for So Long: How the U.S. Media...Iraq, etc..) how the pro nuclear power network (owned by GE) got the cell phone recording of Sean Hannity (of the despicable FOX news network from which Obama is unwisely running away from at this point) talking with stupid George Stephanopoulous?
Look. This debate was no worse than all the ones before, only the difference this time is Barack got hammered. The time for a conversation about media reform and the TOPIC is skewed. We should have had it before the election started and we need to see what each candidate has DONE about the news media--on the topic of OWNERSHIP. Which candidate is pandering to the other things the media owns. But slicing and dicing a debate like this, and then ignoring or distorting (MSNBC ran the flip off video out of order to make it look less offensive)it is beyond the pale.
Back to somebody spying on media.
Dirty is dirty. I want to know who taped that phone call. Who gave it to the news media. If Clinton did something like this, I'd ask the same danged question. And maybe it was McCain,, not Obama folks who did this. Or maybe it was who knows? That's the question, isn't it?
We can't have ANYONE in the White House who thinks it's okay to spy on journalists. No matter how stupid or ill advised those journalists are. Reform the media owners and you'll get the problem under control. Does anyone have a media reform plank in their platform?
Oh, yes. That Edwards guy.

the real drag here is the "hope" genre that has been played from jesse jackson to deval patrick will not mature with the obama campaign. the latter has built upon the notion of "hope" for $25...or more. it's questionable as to how the campaign is spending this money...surely not on volunteers or a field organization. EVERY communication i've received from the campaign has included a money beg...not one of time or input. it's definitely not a poor peoples campaign.
perhaps it's going to the axelrod entity...his business partner manages the campaign and other of his "camp obama" operatives are salaried, and media advisors are not only paid for the product, they profit from ad placement.
a closer look at the obama campaign spending may well provide an introspective into how the junior senator drives the bus...or at least, like a child in a parents lap, sits at the wheel.

the real drag here is the "hope" genre that has been played from jesse jackson to deval patrick will not mature with the obama campaign. the latter has built upon the notion of "hope" for $25...or more. it's questionable as to how the campaign is spending this money...surely not on volunteers or a field organization. EVERY communication i've received from the campaign has included a money beg...not one of time or input. it's definitely not a poor peoples campaign.
perhaps it's going to the axelrod entity...his business partner manages the campaign and other of his "camp obama" operatives are salaried, and media advisors are not only paid for the product, they profit from ad placement.
a closer look at the obama campaign spending may well provide an introspective into how the junior senator drives the bus...or at least, like a child in a parents lap, sits at the wheel.